1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving control device for performing automatic control of a vehicle along a planned route by automatic steering or automatic acceleration/deceleration.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, navigation devices are widely used for vehicles, which employ a Global Positioning System (GPS) for calculating the position of the vehicle based upon the position data received from satellites. Furthermore, various techniques have been proposed and put into practical use, wherein driving of the vehicle is controlled based upon the vehicle-position information obtained by the GPS and information regarding the road ahead of the vehicle detected with a camera or the like.
For example, a technique is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-255937, wherein a vehicle navigation system creates a route based upon a destination input by the driver, and performs automatic control of the vehicle by automatic steering or automatic acceleration/deceleration according to the route thus created serving as a target route.
However, the conventional technique as disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-255937 has a problem that in a case wherein the target route created based upon the destination input by the driver is long, the target route contains a substantial number of intersections, forks, and turnoffs, leading to difficulty in automatic driving control due to complexity thereof. Furthermore, the route created by the navigation system does not match the route which the driver desires up to the destination at all times, leading to poor ease of use thereof. On the other hand, it is assumed that the navigation system which provides not only fixed information stored in the navigation system beforehand regarding the destination but also guiding information received in real time regarding the destination exhibits further improved ease of use.